Almost All Grown Up
by Bionically
Summary: Beezus was getting married; Howie was leaving for college; where did any of this leave Ramona? From Howie's perspective.
1. Changes

It was still festive in the Quimbys' household when Howie decided to leave for the evening. He let himself out through the front door and came to a halt when he saw Ramona sitting on the porch. The hunched slope of her shoulders and the way she had wrapped her arms around her knees disquieted him.

"Hey," he said. "Are you okay?"

If anything, Ramona seemed to hunch down even further. She rubbed the sleeve of her shirt across her face like a young child, and he waited. He knew Ramona of old. It didn't take much encouragement for her to spill out all her emotions.

"It's just..." she started. "It's just that _everything's_ changing. Things will never be the same again."

"Oh, Ramona," he said awkwardly.

She looked up at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "Beezus is getting married and moving away. And _you're _going away for college. So's Daisy. I'm going to be the only one still here!"

And left behind.

Howie knew better than anyone how much Ramona would hate being left behind. "Roberta's here," he said. "And Willa Jean."

It wasn't much comfort and he knew it. He made a silent grimace to himself. Ramona treated Willa Jean like she was another sister, but she was younger than Ramona and Howie, and it probably wasn't comforting to know that everyone she had grown up with was about to leave. He watched Ramona place one cheek on her knee and pity stirred in him. He slowly eased himself down on the porch step next to her.

"You won't even be here for Beezus's wedding," Ramona wailed. "Be-because you have to go on that stupid senior trip."

"Yeah," he said, wisely ignoring her insult. "It's too bad that Beezus couldn't move the wedding up a bit. The school council planned this senior trip half a year ago."

They both contemplated this gloomily. Beezus wanted a perfect June wedding, which meant that Howie and Daisy wouldn't even be around for it.

"I probably won't even see you when you get back," Ramona grumbled. "We talked about our road trip for forever, and now it won't even happen."

Now she was being melodramatic. Usually he might ignore her when she was like this, but she was right. Things were changing. Her Aunt Beatrice had come back to celebrate Beezus's engagement and soon, there would be the usual chaos associated with weddings, with Uncle Hobart also coming into town, along with Ramona's Grandpa Day - but he wouldn't be around for any of that. He would be off on the senior trip abroad, and poor Ramona would still be here for the rest of the summer. Although he didn't say it, he was glad he wouldn't be around for the fuss.

"You can always come visit me in college," he suggested. "It's not that far away." He would be attending college in southern California. A long drive or short flight away.

She seemed to perk up a bit at that. "Really?"

"Sure," he said. "There's Disneyland and Universal Studios, and whatever else you want to do there."

"And go on our road trip?" she asked, giving one last sniff.

"Sure," he said.

"Really, Howie? You think we could really do all that?" She sounded excited, and he glanced at her. Any moment now, and she would jump up and run inside to announce to everyone that she would be going to Hollywood. She would go crazy overboard with her plans. As usual.

What he _really_ thought was that their road trip wasn't very likely. The chances were slim to none, was what his statistics/economics teacher liked to say. But if he said that now, the chances of getting bopped on the head were astoundingly high.

"Will...will you miss me, Howie?" she said, her tone going back to being a bit forlorn.

He didn't have to think about that at all. "Of course I'll miss you, Ramona," he said.

Ramona had been a part of his life ever since he could remember. He used to regard her as a sort of Willa Jean - loud, messy, annoying, and always making a fuss about _something_, except, of course, she was bigger, so she was capable of making a _bigger_ fuss than Willa Jean. But somehow, they were still friends after all this time, and yet closer than mere friends. Cousins, sort of, because of Uncle Hobart and her Aunt Beatrice. He really couldn't imagine life without Ramona in it, probably because she had a way of making sure everyone around knew of her existence and opinions.

He had thought that their friendship would suffer a severe blow when she started dating Danny. To tell the truth, he had been a bit jealous - not that he wanted to date Ramona himself - but just that he felt he was being edged out as Ramona's best male friend. But when Danny's parents divorced and he moved away to live with his dad, that problem seemed to resolve itself, and Howie's life was back to the semi-calm that it had always been. He hated fuss as much as she hated being left out of things.

"We'll always be friends, Ramona," he promised.

But one thing he couldn't promise was that things weren't going to change.

They were changing, and they would never be the same again.


	2. Going Home

The apartment that he had shared for the past three years was now devoid of his possessions, almost as though he had never been there. He had lived on campus in a dorm his first year, and then realized that it was too noisy for him, unlike the calmness of this place. The location of the apartment was also perfect, equidistant from the campus, restaurants, and the design lab where he had interned for the last year and a half.

Howie heaved a sigh. It was really going to be hard to leave such convenience. But graduation had come and gone, and now he had to make the long drive upstate and back home to Oregon.

As was his habit, he cast a look around the room, and double-checked behind the doors to make sure none of his belongings remained. There was a book on the top shelf of his closet that he had overlooked, and he reached for it.

As soon as it was in his hand, he knew what it was. _Red Ribbon_, by Ramona Quimby. She had written and illustrated a children's book and somehow had managed to get it published.

She had sent this one to him. In the dedication page, she had dedicated it to her parents, and then as an afterthought, to him. _To Howie K._, _for letting me have the red ribbon_. He couldn't help a small laugh as he flipped through the pages. He had almost forgotten this book, and the ribbon. The ribbon that their teacher, Mrs. Something-or-other, had given to him. Of course, Ramona had thought it was her ribbon. They had had a terrible row, him holding on mainly because he wasn't going to give in to her at any cost.

Good old Ramona. She was a creative thing, he thought fondly. Always had been, and regularly ranted and raved at him for taking things so literally and overanalyzing matters in his factual way. It would be good to see her again. He hadn't seen her in, oh, was it now really four years? Had he really not seen her since he left for college?

He hadn't gone to Beezus's wedding because of the senior trip. Then, when he came back, it was only for a short period before heading off for college. That's right, she had been off at orientation at the state college, so they didn't even see each other then.

Then freshman year Christmas, his parents had brought Willa Jean and his grandmother down to southern California to take advantage of the sunshine. That summer, he had gone to Hawaii, and then Mexico with friends. The following Christmas, _Ramona_ hadn't been around - she had gone to visit Daisy.

Sophmore year, he had been part of the team that had won the design award, and they had gone off to Boston for the finals. That summer, he had been recruited for another project, and he hadn't made it home.

After that, he started working, and his parents had taken his advice about Hawaii, and they had gone there together for Christmas the following year.

Four years. He grinned a bit as he flipped the large illustrated pages of the book until he reached the back flap. Ramona smiled back at him from her photograph. Her hair, still straight, still brown, hung a little below her shoulders. She looked the same, but almost...well, almost _pretty_, was the word that sprung to his mind. But of course, he thought hastily as he shut the book, they would have put makeup all over her face before taking the photograph anyway.

_Wonder if she's changed at all_, he mused to himself. _Wonder if she's the same Ramona, eyes alight with crazy ideas, wearing all her emotions on her sleeves?_

He turned the book back to the front. Strange that the book had been tucked into his closet, when he was sure that it had always been on his desk, a fond reminder of home. But then, it was possible that Carol, his girlfriend two years ago, had hidden it away. She had gotten the strange idea that there was something between him and Ramona, despite _all_ evidence to the contrary and his explanations that she was just a girl he grew up with.

Tucking the book under his arm, Howie let himself out of the apartment and walked to his car, the engine of which, he was proud to say, built by him. And his team, of course.

It was time to go home.


End file.
